Pedalpalooza Bike Tour!

A group of neighbors is organizing a bike tour of inner-Southeast Village Building Convergence sites this weekend. Read on for details.

 

I’m writing to invite you to the Pedalpalooza bike tour of inner-Southeast Village Building Convergence sites this coming Saturday, June 30th. This will be a potluck-style three-course meal bike-ride, so feel free to bring something easily transportable to share! We also encourage you to bring your own eating utensils.

We will meet at St. David of Wales Church (2800 SE Harrison St.), which was the main VBC venue, at 5 pm to see their placemaking project and enjoy some salad as the first course of our potluck. Around 6 pm we’ll arrive at our second potluck destination, the intersection painting at 16th & Brooklyn, where we will have our main-course dinner items. We will finish the site tour at the Buckman intersection, 15th & Alder, at around 7 pm. We will share dessert and compost any food waste accumulated over the course of the potluck-ride in the community compost. We also plan to bike by the Brooklyn Community Gardens and Communitecture sites en route to our potluck destinations.

This will be a family-friendly event, so feel free to bring little ones and friends of all ages! It will also be a fantastic way to see some of the awesome placemaking visions our community has brought to fruition during this year’s VBC, while meeting others who are interested in building community creatively, joyfully, and by bike!

Let me know if you have any questions, and I hope to see you on Saturday!

Eva (bluenotecosmos@gmail.com)

Free water gauge kits and tips from the Regional Water Providers Consortium

We were recently contacted by a group called the Regional Water Providers Consortium. According to their website, the RWPC “is committed to good stewardship of our region’s water through conservation, emergency preparedness planning and water supply coordination.”

The RWPC is offering a free outdoor watering gauge kit to anyone in the RWPC service territory from July 1st to August 10th. We’ll be publishing an article about it in the upcoming print edition of our newsletter, but you lucky blog readers get a sneak peak at it now!

Help make Buckman waterwise – Free water gauge kits and tips from RWPC

Did you know water usage in the Portland Metro area can more than double and even triple during the summer months? We Oregonians work hard to keep our lawns and gardens green in hot and dry weather. Many of us have heard the advice to water our lawn about an inch a week – and more during hotter weather – but few of us actually know what that means. In fact, many people actually overwater their lawns without realizing it. To help residents wise up about their water usage, the Regional Water Providers Consortium (RWPC) is offering a free outdoor watering gauge kit to anyone in the RWPC service territory from July 1 – August 10.

The watering gauge takes the guesswork out of watering by measuring how much water is landing on your lawn. The RWPC also posts a “weekly watering number” on its website (www.conserveh2o.org), which provides the recommended amount of water to keep lawns healthy through summer.

To receive a free watering gauge kit, call 503-823-7528 or email RWPCinfo@portlandoregon.gov (please include your mailing address, water provider name and how you heard about the offer).

Here are RWPC’s “Top Five” waterwise gardening tips:
1.    Water lawns and gardens early in the morning (before 10 am) or later in the evening (after 6 pm) when temperatures are cooler and evaporation is minimized.
2.    Adjust your sprinklers so that they are watering your lawn and garden and not the street.
3.    Water in several short sessions rather than one long session to allow for better absorption and to prevent run-off.
4.    Adjust your mower to a higher setting. A taller lawn provides shade to the roots and helps retain soil moisture, so your lawn requires less water.
5.    Add a shut-off nozzle to your garden hose and save about 5-7 gallons of water each minute your hose is on.

About the RWPC

The RWPC is a consortium of 23 local water providers plus the regional government Metro. Visit the consortium website – http://www.conserveh2o.org – for more information and resources to help conserve water at your home or business.

BDS hearing on Conditional Use Master Plan (CUMP) for the Washington High Community Center

We recently received notice from the Bureau of Development Services that the hearing date for the Conditional Use Master Plan (CUMP) for the Washington High Community Center (WHCC) will be held on July 23rd at 9:30 am before the City’s Land Use Hearings Officer.  The hearing location is 1900 SW 4th Street, Suite 3000.  Residents who live within 400’ of the WHCC site will receive an individually-mailed notice of the hearing. There will be opportunity for the applicant and the neighborhood association to testify at the hearing.  Testimony from other interested parties also will be taken.  If you are unable to attend the hearing but want to submit comments, you can send an e-mail to the Senior Planner assigned to the case, Kathleen Stokes, at kathleen.stokes@portlandoregon.gov, up until July 22nd. She will then present all written communications to the Hearings Officer. You may also present written testimony at the hearing itself if you prefer that to testifying in public. Written testimony is given the same weight as oral testimony.

Once the public record is closed, typically at the end of the hearing, the Hearings Officer has 17 days to render his decision. Then follows a 14-day appeal period. Only people who have submitted written or oral testimony at the public hearing have “standing” to appeal. If no appeal is filed, the Hearings Officer’s decision will become final. If an appeal is filed, the City Council will schedule a hearing usually within one month. The appeal hearing at City Council is run in the same manner as the initial hearing before the Hearings Officer. The City Council’s decision is final at the local level, although opponents can carry their appeal further to the Land Use Board of Appeals.

Approval for the CUMP means that development of this project could move forward once funds are available.  This CUMP will be valid for 10 years.

Host an International Student!

We were recently contacted by ANDEO, a Portland-based non-profit organization specializing in educational homestay programs since 1981. This summer, they’ll be welcoming students from France, Spain, Germany, Japan, and China to the City of Roses for a few weeks, and would love for some Buckman families to have the opportunity to host one of them! Read on for details.

Local non-profit seeks families in Buckman to welcome an international student for a few weeks!

ANDEO (www.andeo.org), a Portland-based non-profit organization, is looking for great host families in the Buckman neighborhood to host a teen or college-age student from France, Spain, Germany, Japan, or China for a few weeks this summer.  Learn about another culture, share your own, make a new friend, and create some fun summer memories together!

The students are excited to learn more about American culture, practice their English, and discover the Northwest.  Some students take classes in downtown Portland on weekday mornings and enjoy group activities in the afternoons.  Others are free to follow the everyday flow of life with your family.  Either way, your student would be treated as another family member, doing chores, biking around the neighborhood, and participating in your family’s favorite summer activities.  ANDEO matches students and families based on age, gender, nationality, and shared interests.  The final choice to host a particular student is always yours! The students bring their own spending money and are covered by health insurance. Hosting is free, and ANDEO provides a small stipend to help families cover activities, extra food or utility use.

For more information, or to apply to host, please visit ANDEO’s website at www.andeo.org, e-mail Paulene Hedgpeth at paulene@andeo.org, or call 503-274-1776.